Tracking dogs for finding wounded big game. Also dachshunds for blood tracking, field trials, their breeding, training and more.

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Monday, November 16, 2015

Start tracking wounded deer at the hit site

By John Jeanneney

After a stretch of calls where we could not catch up to the
deer, our luck has changed. Tommy and I have had three challenging finds in a
row. Our find this morning confirms an important principle. Start at the hit
site.

The 10 point buck was gut shot, and Dan, the hunter, had
done an amazing job of tracking it a good quarter mile on very sparse blood.
Finally he ran out any blood and backed off.
Dan didn't want Tommy and me to come and track at night in that
god-awful swamp of bush and briars, so we scheduled the search for the
following day. When we started, the scent line was 26 hours old.

Now the easy and attractive option would have been to avoid
a quarter mile of brush and brambles by beginning at the point of loss. We could
have driven right to it. But my 40 years of experience told me to begin at the
hit site. Then Tommy would gain a clear recognition
of the buck's individual scent, while we had a few drops of blood to confirm
that we were on the right line.

It took us about 40 minutes to work over the line tracked by
Dan. It had taken Dan several hours. It was slow going in the thick stuff. When
we finally came to the well-marked point of loss, there seemed to be no scent
left. Tommy worked for 15 minutes through the deadfalls before he became
positive on a scent line. He never would have been able to recognize and pick
up this line, after that long check, if he hadn't memorized the scent over that
first quarter mile.

We moved on wondering whether Tommy really had it. Then Dan
found a drop of blood, and a few moments later Tommy found the buck, dead.
Trust your dog! And start at the hit site.

Best book about blood tracking dogs in English.

Who we are

John and I (Jolanta) breed and use wirehaired dachshunds for tracking wounded big game and hunting. We live in Berne, NY with 10 dachshunds. We are dog breeders, hunters, trackers, field trialers, educators, writers and self-publishers. Contact us atinfo@born-to-track.com. More info about us and our dogs at www.born-to-track.com

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All material, unless otherwise stated is Copyright (c) by Jolanta and John Jeanneney. All rights reserved. No Reproduction Allowed Without Prior Permission.No one has paid for a listing or reference on this blog.